I picked up a small twig from the ground, and with extreme caution used it to remove the centipede from my chest. I felt like I had escaped the greatest threat in the world once I did that. I slowly stood up. The world whirled as I struggled to maintain my balance. I had only 5 health left. If I slipped and fell, it was enough to kill me. I tried to take stock of my situation.
I didn’t have my bag with me, which meant I had no access to my health vials. Plus, my sword was gone. I was in a jungle thousands of kilometres away from Kapilpura. A jungle filled with threats of all kinds. I recalled the beautiful face and the sweet voice with which the monster had stripped me of my senses. I was sure it was the monster that had brought me here. I couldn’t understand though why it had not killed me. Perhaps it thought I was already dead? Or maybe it wanted the forest to kill me?
My heart began to race as panic raised its ugly head. I took a few breaths to calm myself. It was okay, I told my restless heart. I was in the worst situation imaginable, but it was okay.
Wait, Mastermind had been there too. Where was he now? I looked around, but couldn’t see any trace of him anywhere. Had he died? I myself had my health at 5. There was a high possibility that Mastermind was dead.
And then, I spotted saw a leg sticking out of the bushes. I rushed to the leg and saw that the person it belonged to was none other than Mastermind. He didn’t have his bag either and he was unconscious. I felt pretty bad that despite our best efforts, the monster had defeated us. And not with sheer might, but with seduction and tricks.
I pulled Mastermind out of the bushes. There were many ants all over him and it took me a minute to remove them. I focused on him. He just had three health left. It looked like the ants had bitten him and he had red rashes all over his body. I reckoned even if he had possessed more health when the monster had first left us here, then due to the ant bites his health had fallen further.
I slapped his face lightly. He didn’t show any sigh of movement, but I knew he was alive because he was breathing. I slapped his face again, and he opened his eyes slowly.
“Where am I?” he asked.
“Not far from the ruins,” I told him, as I helped him sit up. “The monster casted her spell on the two of us and then she brought us here and left us.”
“Shit, I have only 3 health left!”
“Me 5,” I said.
“I’ll end up in level one if I die,” he said.
“I am pretty sure we’ll die in a few hours,” I said, and I was sad that I sounded so defeated and beaten up, “there are ants all over this place. They bite us, our health goes down. And if we don’t eat anything, our health goes down as well.”
“Shut up,” Mastermind said, grimacing at me. A fire suddenly seemed to have come to his eyes. “There is always a way out.”
“But there is nothing we can do,” I said. At that moment I saw a mosquito sitting on my forearm, sucking my blood. I swatted it. I saw that my health had fallen to four. Few hours? I reckoned we were going to die in a few minutes.
“We can,” Mastermind said, and there was so much positivity on his face that I felt bad I was thinking depressing thoughts. “Let’s check our options. So, what do we not have?”
“Our bags that contain the health vials. And we also don’t have a lot of time.”
“Yeah, you are right. If we go to the ruins again, we will be killed in no time.”
I was pretty sure we would die just trying to make our way to the ruins through the dense vegetation.
“But,” Mastermind said, “I can still summon Pero, and you can also summon your pets!”
I couldn’t help but let out a gasp of elation. There were still things that we could to do to fix the problem, weren’t there?
“And we can also message our friends, maybe tell them to bring health vials along.”
“That’s more like it!” Mastermind said, his face going red with determination. “We can call that guy… what was his name?”
“Grimguy,” I said, “I can also call some of my other friends who I really trust.”
“Yes, you are right,” Mastermind said, “if you trust them you can call them. I have been taking too many precautions lately, such that I have made myself unable to do anything without fearing that I would be traced. Doesn’t matter, as it takes time to trace and in that time it is always possible to go perma. The more people with us the better.”
“But they would take some time to reach us,” I said. I myself had taken at least a couple of hours to come to Mastermind after he had first contacted me when I was in Wiseazz’s party.
“No problem,” Mastermind said. “First we summon our pets. They will keep us safe, bring us food, and with the will of god we would survive the time required by your friends to reach us with the health vials.”
So in a few moments, Danav and Danavma, as well as Pero had appeared at the scene. We told them of our predicament.
Danavma placed a very mother-like hand on my shoulder.
“I shouldn’t have left you,” she said, “but everything will be all right now.”
Now that I thought of it, it was probably good that Danav and Danavma had left me. Who knows? The monster might have found some way to get them under its charm as well, and then with all of us low in health it would have been impossible to even think of doing what we were planning now to save our lives.
Danav created a fire, while Danavma and Pero together cleared the vegetation around us. They chased away any snakes or large poisonous insect that might bite us and kill us. The sunlight fell on my face and I relished its warmth. I messaged Grimguy meanwhile.
“Hey, can you come along?” I messaged.
“Yes,” he replied immediately. “I have been sitting in my room waiting for you to call me.”
“Okay, good,” I said, “the place we are located in is the Ruins of Drabund. About two kilometres from it actually, but we are creating a fire, and it shouldn’t be that hard for you to find us once you reach here. Talk calmly with the Raks. Have you seen the darker red spot in the map?”
“Yes, I have found it,” Grimguy said, “I wish I had known about its existence earlier though. I could have been able to see the entire world of Prithvi by using the portal.”
“Be careful though. The use of the portal requires a large amount of gold. You have enough gold, right?”
“Yes, don’t worry about that. I’ll also take some gold from Nanda along, just in case.”
“And don’t forget to bring all the health vials you have. My health is only 4 right now. Please try to come fast.”
“Health is only 4! What are you saying? What happened?”
“I’ll tell you when you come. But come fast.”
“Okay, okay. I am on my way.”
Rajahard and Ladyjane weren’t online presently. But surprisingly, Lovebird was, and now I messaged her. She had seen the message I had sent her yesterday though she had not replied to it. Perhaps she hadn’t wanted to disturb me.
“Hey. Can you come to me?” I said.
“But you said you are thousands of kilometres away.”
“Are you doing anything important?”
“No. I am just wandering about the streets of Kapilpura. Rajahard and Ladyjane are offline too. I was thinking of logging out.”
“I have the most adventurous adventure for you. You want to join it?”
“Of course.”
Lovebird had her problems at home and it would be bad to expect too much help from her. But she was a good warrior. And it was better with her around. Plus, anytime she needed to return home, it was quite possible for her to log out. But she had no knowledge about Death13 at the same time. Should I tell her about the junk code? I would, but not now.
I told her where I was and how she could come. Like Grimguy she was quite surprised. But when I told her that I was about to die, she said that she would come no matter what. I felt really grateful to her. I knew though that she couldn’t be in the game world for more than a few hours, which
in turn made me feel selfish for calling her.
Danav set up the fire and then brought us wild berries and fruits from the jungle that he knew to be edible. Some of the fruits I had never seen in the real world, not even in photographs, but I trusted Danav’s knowledge even though he was only a very young monkey man. But since his mother approved of the fruits, Mastermind and I began to eat them. They were actually quite good in taste, and I observed in amazement as my health increased to ten. I reckoned if I ate enough it would be possible for me to regain all my health without requiring the health vials. But soon my stomach was full and I could eat no more. I felt thirsty and asked Danav if he could fetch us water from somewhere. To my surprise he just broke the branch of a small tree and water began to pour out of the broken branch. I put my mouth below the branch and eagerly drank the water. It had a peculiar taste, but as long as it quenched my thirst, I was quite okay with the taste.
Mastermind also drank from the same branch.
“It’s interesting that the game developers put resources like this in the forest,” he remarked, “they sure took a lot of inspiration from the real world.”
Yes, now I recalled a survive-in-the-wild television reality show where an adventurer went to a forest with just a knife and survived there for an entire month. I recalled a scene where the adventurer had drunk water in the same way as I had done today.
Slowly an hour rolled by, and the place that we were in was now quite clean of vegetation. The ants and other insects had also been chased away, partially thanks to the smoke from the fire. Pero and Danavma both sat down now, looking quite tired.
“Thanks,” I said to them, “this is really helping us.”
“You saved my son, remember?” Danavma said, “I’ll always do my best to protect you in return because I will always be in your debt.”
“Your friends are coming, right?” Mastermind asked me.
“They are,” I assured him. “But it takes time. Even I required a few hours.”
“It would be good if we could do away with the monster today itself,” Mastermind said. “Or at least if we could get our bags back, even that would be cool.”
I inwardly hoped that the monster hadn’t destroyed the bags. Player bags could be destroyed, right? But what would happen if we couldn’t get our bags back?
“Is there any way for us to get new bags?” I asked.
“Well, if we die we’ll get a new bag each,” Mastermind said. “But all the bag would contain is your gold and the main weapon that you use. No health vials, message stones or other stuff you might have collected.”
“We can’t get a new bag without dying?” I asked. The player bags were special because a lot of things could be put into them even though they were so small.
“I have never known anyone get a new bag without dying,” Mastermind said. “But I have heard you can get a new bag from the bank by going through some complicated procedures.”
“Do you have a bank account here in Prithvi?” I asked curiously.
“I do.”
“What happens when a player with a bank account dies and respawns?”
“The bank account remains as it is. You can still access all the banking facilities after you respawn.”
That was interesting. Dying and respawning in the world of Prithvi wasn’t like one needed to start from scratch again. You got to keep bank accounts, gold and the main weapon you use. So you could climb back up the levels much quicker.
After a while I decided to message Grimguy.
“Where are you?”
“Just nearing the village with the portal,” he replied, “But I don’t know why I can’t shake off the feeling that someone is following me.”
Someone following Grimguy? Who could it be?
My heart leapt when I thought of Death13.
“Be careful,” I messaged him. I really didn’t want Death13 to attack Grimguy. He was a good person. Deleting him from the game world would be bad. At the same time, I didn’t want to strike fear into him. Thankfully I received another message from him after a minute which took away all such worries.
“Haha,” he told me, “it’s your girl, Lovebird. She’s been following me. Apparently she was trying to catch up to me. She seems to have forgotten that I am in her friend list and she could just message me easily.”
“Haha. But that’s good news. I was afraid Death13 was following you. And yes, it was I that asked Lovebird to come.”
“Hey, don’t remind me of Death13, man. Not when I am in the forest. It’s scary.”
“Okay, I won’t. But just be careful still.”
“Cool. We have seen the village. The Ruins of Drabund, right, that’s where you are?”
“Yup. Not far from it. Don’t go directly to the ruins. There is a monster there, a shape shifter. Watch out for signs of smoke and come to us.”
I ended the conversation with Grimguy. I felt much relaxed now. I just hoped the Raks won’t create any problem for him and Lovebird.
“They will be here in no time,” I told Mastermind.
“That’s good news,” Mastermind said, but he seemed to be brooding. I hoped we would be able to kill the monster within today.
I told Danav to make the fire smoke. Soon a good volume of smoke was going up in the air. Grimguy and Lovebird shouldn’t have much difficulty finding us.
It was about half an hour later that I got the next message from Grimguy.
“Okay. We are here. We can see the ruins and I think we can see the smoke as well. But the jungle is so thick that it will be a bit problematic to get to you.”
I suddenly had an idea. I turned to Mastermind.
“Hey, they have reached here!” I told him, so that he lit up. “But Grimguy is saying it would take them some time to reach here due to the forest. Do you think you can ask Pero to find and bring them? It would be quicker that way.”
“That’s not a bad idea actually,” Mastermind said. He told Pero to bring Grimguy and Lovebird. Pero flapped his wings and took to the air.
I messaged Lovebird.
“A great pterodactyl is going to pick you and Grimguy. Don’t worry though, he’s on our side.”
Lovebird didn’t reply. Perhaps she was surprised. In another five minutes though, Pero was slowly descending. With his claws he was carefully holding Grimguy and Lovebird. The two of them looked scared to death.
Pero placed them on the ground. Both of them immediately slumped down. I rushed to Lovebird and helped her sit up. She had gone pale, her health dropping. Mastermind meanwhile helped Grimguy sit up.
“I would have preferred making my way through the forest,” Grimguy said.
“Sorry,” I said, biting my lip, “I really forgot you’d feel nauseous.”
I took their bags and then I took out a couple of health vials. They drank the health vials and the colour slowly returned to their faces. I drank one as well and gave another to Mastermind. As my health increased, I really felt grateful to Grimguy and Lovebird. It was only because of them that I needn’t die today.
“So, tell us about all that really happened,” Grimguy said, now that he seemed to be feeling better.
I glanced at Mastermind. This was going to take a while. By the time, Mastermind and I were done, Grimguy and Lovebird had a lot of questions. Lovebird on top of that seemed upset that I was telling her about Death13 and all my other adventures only now. It took a while to explain to her that it was because Mastermind had told me to keep quiet. Mastermind also told her that he feared that a scenario might occur where the gang members could trace our true locations, and then it would be the end of the two of us. Only after explaining this did Lovebird say that it was okay.
Next the four of us set about making a plan to defeat the monster.
“She sings really well, and her looks…” I didn’t say further. I didn’t think Lovebird would be very happy if I said that I had nearly died because I got lost admiring the beauty of another woman— who didn’t happen to be a woman in the
first place.
“The moment your eyes fall on her, you’ll lose yourself to bliss,” Mastermind finished for me.
“She can’t be that beautiful,” Lovebird said.
“Not in her other forms, only when she is a girl,” I said, trying to avoid Lovebird’s eyes.
“In that case, I would like a peek at her,” Grimguy said.
Mastermind grimaced.
“You haven’t seen her, yet you have already fallen for her. Wow,” there was much sarcasm in his voice, “in such a case, consider us having already defeated the monster.”
“Well, I take back my words then,” Grimguy said, turning a shade of pink.
“You are men,” Lovebird suddenly said. “That’s why you fall for her, at least in her woman form.”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” Mastermind said. Then he suddenly seemed to understand what Lovebird really meant, and his eyes went wide.
“Which means I shouldn’t fall for her,” Lovebird said with a smile like she had conquered a mountain.
“Well, that depends, you know,” Grimguy said. “It’s not guaranteed that simply because you are a girl you won’t fall for her.”
Lovebird narrowed her eyes.
“Look, I am not into girls, okay?”
“Then that’s that,” Grimguy said. “You will go to the ruins and slay the monster.”
“I don’t think it will be a great idea to send her alone,” I said. “What if the monster attacks her in the form of the old woman or the old man? Or what if the monster takes the form of a seductive man? You never know.”
“Rohan is right,” Mastermind said. “I think it’s best that we all go together.”
“And this time, we are not leaving you,” Danavma told me.
“So, all of us will go together,” I said. “But first, Mastermind, can you go to the ruins on Pero’s back? Take a look at the ruins from the sky to see where our bags are?”
“Not a bad idea,” Mastermind said. Then a shade of fear crossed his face. “But I am afraid that the monster might attack me from the ground.”
“Don’t say that,” Grimguy said. “You are our leader. If you show fear, we are done for.”
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